Crime Rate Down Among Kids, Not Up

With Grand Theft Auto IV only two days away, Jack Thompson and other mindless pundits are bound to get their panties in a bunch, but according to recent stats, violent crime among children has dropped:

Despite perceptions that video gamers tend to be children, industry statistics indicate typical players are more than 30 years old.

“People think video games are for kids and they’re not anymore,” said Woo.

While concerns about violent games breeding criminals remain strong, US national statistics show that violent crimes by children have been on the decline for years while video game play has rocketed.

“If there is this big causal trend you would expect to see a large leap in violent crime among kids, but there is not,” said Mia Consalvo, an assistant professor specializing in video game research at Ohio University.

The main thing is this: the game is clearly rated as Mature, and it’s parental responsibility to watch not only what their children play, but what movies they go to, what magazines they read, and so forth. In fact the one thing that separates 2old2play gamers from other non-gaming parents, is that we know the games our children are playing because we play them too.

(Thanks, AFP-Google.)